Most television viewers are familiar with pay-per-view (PPV) or similar services in which a television subscriber purchases certain programming events for viewing via a private telecast. PPV telecasts are often used to distribute premium content such as movies, sporting events and other entertainment programs that are not included with the purchaser's regular television subscription. Typically, a direct broadcast satellite (DBS), cable or other television subscriber pays an additional fee to the content provider to receive the private telecast of the desired programming.
Typically, content providers have different pricing structures for residential and commercial customers, especially with regard to PPV or other premium content. A bar or restaurant, for example, will typically pay more than a regular residential customer for access to the same programming. This is because a commercial establishment will often present the restricted programming to a larger group of people than a typical residential customer, thereby incurring greater licensing fees to the content owner. Moreover, commercial establishments often impose cover charges or other additional fees to view the premium content, thereby allowing the establishment to profit from the premium content. A boxing match, for example, can attract a large number of paying customers to an establishment that purchases the PPV telecast of the match. As a result, bars, restaurants, gyms and other commercial establishments often have a substantial economic incentive to obtain premium content for viewing by their customers.
On occasion, however, some persons attempt to exploit the difference in residential and commercial pricing of premium content. To avoid paying the higher fees for commercial access to the content, the person instead registers a cable or satellite receiver device to a residential address. After the device is installed, the person obtains premium content at the residential rate. Instead of viewing the content at the residential location, however, the user physically relocates the “home” receiver device to a commercial establishment so that the received telecast can be viewed by the establishment's customers, which can number in the dozens or even hundreds of viewers. This practice takes advantage of the lower residential rate to unfairly prejudice those establishments that pay the appropriate commercial rate. It may also be a violation of civil and/or criminal laws.
It is therefore desirable to detect when a television receiver device is moved from its registered location. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.